Related Articles

HO CHI MINH CITY — An Viet Long is a company that makes remote-control helicopters. But when founder Loc Le used to send them to a third party for coating, they would come back in the wrong color. Or they would get dipped too long in chemicals. Or the other company would lose the toys altogether.

Loc said such an unreliable supply chain is a key problem for small and medium businesses like his in Vietnam.

“If you do business in China or Thailand, you have industrial support,” Loc told VOA. “They have the materials available. But for us, it’s very limited.”

Looking to tackle common issues faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Loc and other entrepreneurs met Tuesday at a workshop run by the U.S.-Asean Business Council, which promotes commerce between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Despite their size, these smaller businesses are seen as essential to Vietnam’s economic stability and therefore its future overall. But as Loc’s experience with chemical coating showed, local capacity is still lacking.

“SMEs are in an inferior position because they’re caught between state-owned enterprises and foreign direct invested companies,” Vu Tu Thanh, the Business Council’s Vietnam representative, said at the workshop. “They don’t have the proportional support or resources of these two sectors.”

Small business owners rarely exercise the lobbying power of state-owned conglomerates and multi-national companies. Even those who do form trade associations sometimes use them for services and information, rather than to pool forces and voice their interests to the government.

While their contribution to GDP is dwarfed by that of state and foreign firms, SMEs make up roughly 90 percent of the businesses in Vietnam, according to Jeff McLean, general manager of UPS Vietnam, which co-sponsored the workshop. Analysts say SME’s can provide some job stability in the face of economic recessions, when the collapse of large companies has more impact on unemployment rates.

At the workshop, businesses zeroed in on a few areas where improvements would boost their local capacity: human resources, technology, and capital.

Vietnam faces a credit crunch because years of loose lending allowed many borrowers to rack up debts they couldn’t afford to repay. The country now has the highest rate of bad debt in Southeast Asia. Most of those non-performing loans went to state-backed firms, so when lending tightened up, it was smaller companies that paid the price in the form of less access to capital.

“A lot of SMEs around the world, not just in Vietnam, complain that banks are too strict, they don’t lend them money,” said Raymond Lim, a senior vice president at Citibank in Singapore.

He conceded that SMEs have an “inherent disadvantage” compared with big companies when applying for loans. But to help improve their chances, Lim told business owners that banks evaluate applicants based on such factors as reputation, record keeping, financial reports, and cash flow to make sure they can always pay bills on time. “For SMEs, if you want to grow, cash flow is everything, it is all about cash flow,” he said.

Panelists also urged entrepreneurs to take advantage of technologies that could streamline their operations. A Visa representative called Vietnam a “very, very high cash-driven society” where credit and debit cards have an extremely low penetration. Yet internet use here is the second highest in Southeast Asia, right behind Thailand’s rate, according to a Google analyst.

“What that tells us is, there is potential for growth” in e-commerce, said Prashant Aggarwal, a regional director for Visa. He also said that in terms of credit card fraud, Asia is more secure than most continents.

That was part of the reason some at the workshop recommended Vietnamese businesses focus on Asia first for their growth strategies.

Shiumei Lin, Vice Chair of the US-Asean Business Council's Vietnam Committee, said SMEs should make use of the advanced transit links across Asean, as well as Vietnam’s 20 or so free trade deals, such as with Japan or China. She said SMEs should not let their size intimidate them from exporting to these larger economies.

“Actually, small businesses have a huge advantage,” Lin said. “The fact that you are small means you are able to be much more nimble, much more active, able to respond to market needs.”

Manned deep space missions are still a long way off, but space agencies are already testing procedures, equipment and human stamina for operations in extreme environment conditions. Small groups of astronauts take turns in spending days in an underwater lab, off Florida’s southern coast, simulating future missions to some remote world. VOA’s George Putic reports.

Video

Manned deep space missions are still a long way off, but space agencies are already testing procedures, equipment and human stamina for operations in extreme environment conditions. Small groups of astronauts take turns in spending days in an underwater lab, off Florida’s southern coast, simulating future missions to some remote world. VOA’s George Putic reports.

Video

Fifty years ago, lawmakers approved, and U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The measure outlawed racial discrimination in voting, giving millions of blacks in many parts of the southern United States federal enforcement of the right to vote. Correspondent Chris Simkins introduces us to some civil rights leaders who were on the front lines in the struggle for voting rights.

Video

Billions of dollars of so-called ‘dirty money’ from the proceeds of crime - especially from Russia - are being laundered through the London property market, according to anti-corruption activists. As Henry Ridgwell reports from the British capital, the government has pledged to crack down on the practice.

Video

Ottawa, Illinois, is the hometown of W.D. Boyce, who founded the Boy Scouts of America in 1910. In Ottawa, where Scouting remains an important part of the legacy of the community, the end of the organization's ban on openly gay adult leaders was seen as inevitable. VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports.

Video

Artificial limbs, including the most complex of them – the human hand – are getting more life-like and useful due to constant advances in tiny hydraulic, pneumatic and electric motors called actuators. But now, as VOA’s George Putic reports, scientists in Germany say the future of the prosthetic hand may lie not in motors but in wires that can ‘remember’ their shape.

Video

A British pro-democracy group has accused Russia of abusing the global law enforcement agency Interpol by requesting the arrest and extradition of political opponents. A new report by the group notes such requests can mean the accused are unable to travel and are often unable to open bank accounts. VOA's Henry Ridgwell reports.

Video

Talks on a major new trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations are said to be nearing completion in Hawaii. Some trade experts say the "positive atmosphere" at the discussions could mean a deal is within reach, but there is still hard bargaining to be done over many issues and products, including U.S. drugs and Japanese rice. VOA's Jim Randle reports.

Video

Earth is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction. The last such event was caused by an asteroid 66 million years ago. It killed off the dinosaurs and practically everything else. So scientists are in a race against time to classify the estimated 11 million species alive today. So far only 2 million are described by science, and researchers are worried many will disappear before they even have a name. VOA’s Rosanne Skirble reports.

Video

Scientists have long been trying to develop an effective protection and cure for malaria - one of the deadliest diseases that affects people in tropical areas, especially children. As the World Health Organization announces plans to begin clinical trials of a promising new vaccine, scientists in South Africa report that they too are at an important threshold. George Putic reports, they are testing a compound that could be a single-dose cure for malaria.

Video

The latest issue of 'New York' magazine features 35 women who say they were drugged and raped by film and television celebrity Bill Cosby. The women are aged from 44 to 80 and come from different walks of life and races. The magazine interviewed each of them separately, but Zlatica Hoke reports their stories are similar.

Video

The United States is promising not to give up its fight against what Secretary of State John Kerry calls the “scourge” of modern slavery. Officials released the country’s annual human trafficking report Monday – a report that’s being met with some criticism. VOA’s National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin has more from the State Department.

Video

Abandoned more than 50 years ago, the underground streetcar station in Washington D.C.’s historic DuPont Circle district is about to be reborn. The plan calls for turning the spacious underground platforms - once meant to be a transportation hub, - into a unique space for art exhibitions, presentations, concerts and even a film set. Roman Mamonov has more from beneath the streets of the U.S. capital. Joy Wagner narrates his report.

Video

Greece has replaced Italy as the main gateway for migrants into Europe, with more than 100,000 arrivals in the first six months of 2015. Many want to move further into Europe and escape Greece’s economic crisis, but they face widespread dangers on the journey overland through the Balkans. VOA's Henry Ridgwell reports.

Video

After the closure of a major rubbish dump a week ago, the streets of Beirut are filling up with trash. Having failed to draw up a plan B, politicians are struggling to deal with the problem. John Owens has more for VOA from Beirut.

Video

A U.N. climate conference in December aims to produce an ambitious agreement to fight heat-trapping greenhouse gases. But many local governments are not waiting, and have drafted their own climate action plans. That’s the case with Paris — which is getting special attention, since it’s hosting the climate summit. Lisa Bryant takes a look for VOA at the transformation of the French capital into an eco-city.